The Amber Wing crosses the final minefield lane. Behind the hull, dormant charges remain dark. Ahead, the derelict warship's docking collar closes around the transport with a shudder.
Lahani
Clamp is holding. The return lane is still visible, but the warship is already narrowing it.
Ranuko
The fabricated shim is stable. The relay is not. Something aboard that warship is using our authentication signal as a command channel.
The Captain's authority key pulses against the inner hatch. Military seals retract. At the same time, Amber Wing control surfaces begin switching to remote status, one subsystem at a time.
Lahani
It is offering access by taking ownership. If the transfer completes, we may enter the warship and lose the ship that brought us here.
Ranuko
The command core is preserving the Captain's control architecture. That key is not just opening the hatch. It is asking us to restore the chain of command.
“Lets see if we cant salvage the weapons from this thing. Main guns are no go, but there should be something”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled -2)
Nahuli
Let's see if we can't salvage the weapons from this thing. Main guns are no go, but there should be something.
The engineering interface accepts the authority key's handshake. Nahuli traces dormant weapon buses through the warship's maintenance architecture, bypassing the dead main batteries.
A compact defense locker unlocks in the docking section. Inside: four patchable point-defense emitters, their capacitor cells still holding charge, plus a sealed crate of feed assemblies.
Ranuko
There. Those can be stripped and adapted. Not enough to arm the main guns, but enough to give the Amber Wing teeth.
The salvage is secured in the transfer cradle, but the extraction draws power from the unstable relay. The fabricated shim flashes hot, and one of its diagnostic traces burns out.
The clatter also travels through the docking link. Somewhere inside the warship, dormant systems wake to listen. The Captain's authority key answers with a brief, amused-looking pulse.
Lahani
We have the weapons. Now the warship is asking whether we are cargo, crew, or trespassers. Its command channel wants a response.
Quest Complete
Reach the derelict warship
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Superb→Legendary
+ New Item Acquired
Point-Defense Emitters
+ New Item Acquired
Feed-Assembly Crate
“See what else we can take from this, including any personnel gear”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled -3)
Nahuli routes the derelict's maintenance map through the salvage interface, following power, access, and life-support traces away from the weapons locker.
Therefore, a sealed personnel-services compartment opens behind the docking section. Inside are four vacuum-rated utility harnesses, compact breaching tools, insulated gloves, and two intact emergency med-kits.
Ranuko
Useful gear. The harnesses can anchor us outside the hull, and those tools are built for military fasteners.
But the compartment's release cycle dumps its reserve charge into the transfer cradle. The relay shim spikes again, and a sharp heat warning burns across the engineering display.
Nahuli secures the personnel gear with the weapon salvage. The cost is concrete: one of the Amber Wing's two emergency med-kits is expended cooling the overheated relay interface, leaving the other as the ship's only kit.
Lahani
The command channel noticed that power draw. It has identified the docking collar as a controllable system, and it is closing our return permissions.
Across the forward displays, the Captain's authority key emits another amused pulse. A departure authorization request appears beside two active choices: surrender navigation control, or sever the docking link while the warship still permits it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the docking link
+ New Item Acquired
Vacuum Harnesses
+ New Item Acquired
Breaching Tools
+ New Item Acquired
Insulated Gloves
+ New Item Acquired
Emergency Med-Kit
“Lock down the warships systems”
SUCCESS (Great Security Systems, rolled -2)
The departure request remains open, but Nahuli redirects the salvage interface into the derelict's maintenance spine instead of answering it.
He collapses the warship's remote system permissions in a tight sequence, isolating weapons, propulsion commands, and docking controls behind local authorization.
The lockdown takes hold. The warship's command channel loses access to the Amber Wing's internal systems, though the physical docking link stays engaged.
Lahani
It worked. Their commands are no longer reaching our buses.
But the override burns out the salvage interface's hardened access fuse. The repair kit can replace it, though the interface is dead until then.
Lahani
The collar is still latched, and the warship knows we took control back. Its authority key is asking for a response through the manual channel.
On the forward display, the Captain's amused appraisal returns as a single pulsing symbol beside two locked controls: maintain the dock, or initiate a physical disconnect.
+ New Item Acquired
Failed Salvage Lead
“Kill the power”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled +1)
Nahuli reaches beneath the console and kills the Amber Wing's nonessential power feed, leaving only life support, local controls, and the emergency relay shim alive.
The forward display dies. Across the docking collar, the derelict's illuminated indicators vanish in sequence as its powered latch and command interface lose energy.
Lahani
The warship is dark. Its active systems are no longer holding us.
Therefore the physical connection remains, locked by cold mechanical jaws. Without power, the Amber Wing cannot drive the release motors or restore its navigation systems.
Lahani
That bought us silence, not freedom. The manual disconnect is still on our side of the collar.
A narrow maintenance lamp flickers on beside the dead controls, revealing the Captain's symbol stamped above a recessed handwheel. The metal housing begins to rotate under stored spring tension.
Lahani
Something in the collar is resetting. If it locks again, we may lose the return lane with the ship still attached.
“I use breaching tools to jam the latch”
SUCCESS (Legendary Engineering, rolled -2)
Nahuli crosses the narrow control section and wedges a breaching tool into the exposed latch housing, bracing his slim frame against the collar's vibration.
He drives the tool beneath the resetting pawl. The spring-loaded mechanism snaps down onto the metal, but the improvised jam holds the docking latch open instead of allowing it to re-engage.
The cost arrives immediately. The breaching tool bends with a sharp crack, and the recoil scrapes Nahuli's glove against the housing, leaving the tool damaged and his hand stinging.
Lahani
The latch is fixed open. The collar still has us, but it cannot complete the lock cycle.
A muted vibration travels through the deck. The jammed pawl holds, while the physical docking jaws remain clamped around the Amber Wing's collar.
Lahani
That vibration is coming from the warship's side. Its manual channel just found a way to push against the latch.
The Captain's stamped handwheel begins turning again, slowly forcing the collar toward a mechanical release cycle. The jam prevents relocking, but the warship is still trying to decide what opens next.
“I force the docking jaws apart manually”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +1)
Nahuli hooks the damaged breaching tool through the docking mechanism, braces against the collar, and forces the manual jaws apart with steady leverage.
The jaws grind outward. Stored tension releases in a heavy shudder, and the Amber Wing's collar clears the warship's grip completely.
Nahuli
The docking jaws are open. The ship is free to move.
Lahani
We are detached. Local controls are responding, and the return lane is still visible beyond the collar.
The Amber Wing drifts backward on attitude thrusters, carrying the salvaged emitters, feed assemblies, and utility gear. The damaged tool drops beside the cold latch.
Ranuko
The relay shim stayed inside its limits. But the warship is powering something deeper now. I am reading fresh current below the command deck.
Behind them, the derelict's dead hull wakes in isolated sections. A narrow service route illuminates across its exterior, leading toward the newly active power signature.
Determine what is powering the derelict's deeper systems
Quest Complete
Sever the docking link
Skill Upgrade: Security Systems Great→Superb